IMPHAL, August 4: Several tribal students bodies together strongly condemned the statement made by Premananda, Convenor of Joint Students Co-coordinating Committee urging the University authority to review the seat reservation system to be followed in admission of the students to Manipur University from the academic session of the year 2014-2015.
The Manipur University had been following the State reservation policy of 34% for ST students when it was under State University. With the conversion of the Manipur University into a Central University on October 15, 2005 the reservation policy of the Central Government which reserved 7.5% for ST, 15% for Sc and 27% for OBC was followed till 2013-14 said Manglian Gangte, president, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Students’ Union, IGNTUSU RCM at a press meet held today at the Press Club, Imphal.
He said that the new Gazette of India published on June 6 2012 made an amendment to the earlier Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 and according to the new Gazette of India 2012, the reservation of 31% for ST is to be followed in admission of students in Central Universities located in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and the tribal areas of Assam referred to in the 6th Scheduled to Constitution of India.
Therefore, the assertion of Premananda to urge the Manipur University authority not to follow the new norms that are adopted by all the Central Universities in the country is unjustified. This was vehemently opposed by the MUTSU he added.
He further said that the “6th Scheduled to the Constitution” mentioned in Clause 2(ia) of the Gazette should not be confused and it is referred only to the Tribal people living in the Sixth Scheduled areas of the state of Assam.
Therefore, the statement made by Premananda that “Manipur is not among them” is a misinterpretation Clause (ia) he said.
The Manipur University has also made a Press Release on July 24 that, according to the reservation in admission Amendment Act, 2012 the seats reserved for admission to the Manipur University for different categories may be, ST-31%, SC-2% and OBC-17%.
In this connection a meeting of the heads and deans was held on July 23, 2014 to consider and approve the adoption of the Central Educational Institution (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Act, 2012, vide letter No.MU/6/14/2008/ administration dated 23/7/2014 (Letter to the Secretary to the Governor, Manipur) he said.
Manglian Gangte said that this clarification is made by MUTSU and IGNTUSU-RCM so that the general public may not be instigated by misleading statements and false propaganda.
The press meet was jointly organised by the Manipur University Tribal Students’ Union (MUTSU), Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Students’ Union Regional Centre Manipur (IGNTUSU-RCM) and Kuki Student’s Organisation (KSO), All Tribal Students Union Manipur (ATSUM).
